Leg rests for seats, and in particular vehicle seats, are well known. Many variants of structure are possible, and such seats operate on many different principle of operation.
Leg rests and their structures are an additional expense and add weight, hence greater associated fuel costs. Hence typically leg rests are found in premium class seats in passenger aircraft only where such costs are more easily recoverable.
The weight of the leg rest and its associated mechanism is to be as light as possible yet still be able to adequately and safely function. It is also important that the leg rest and its associated mechanism be cheap to install and maintain.
When a leg rest is designed to extend from a seat arrangement in a cantilevered fashion, it is typically required to have a very robust design. This is because the leg rest support member itself acts as a large lever, and applying a persons leg weight to the support member will produce a large amount of torque on the seat structures, which requires robustly designed support structures to prevent damage to the seat arrangement.
In order for a leg rest and its associated extension arrangement to be regarded as appropriate for use in a passenger aircraft, it must be as light as possible. Further, where the leg rest extends and/or retracts by means of a powered mechanism, the possibility of injury to a passenger exists.
In this specification, where reference has been made to external sources of information, including patent specifications and other documents, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the present invention. Unless stated otherwise, reference to such sources of information is not to be construed, in any jurisdiction, as an admission that such sources of information are prior art or form part of the common general knowledge in the art.